Joe Allen insists it is the Wales players who shoulder the blame for the thumping 6-1 defeat in Serbia and not manager Chris Coleman.

Wales' World Cup aspirations were dealt a savage blow as their woeful performance in Novi Sad left them rooted to the foot of Group A.

Having taken over a squad that had won four of their last five games under Gary Speed, Coleman has had a difficult start to his time in charge.

Wales have lost their last five games and the manner of Tuesday night's drubbing means Coleman will be under the spotlight when Scotland visit Cardiff next month.

But Liverpool midfielder Allen believes it is the players who have to take the brunt of the criticism for the performance.

He said: "To be fair to the manager he has done everything he can to prepare us and send us out on to the field.

"It's us as players who are letting everybody down at the moment.

"I can say that on behalf of all of us - me included - it just wasn't good enough and we were to blame."

Allen admitted that the Wales dressing room had been a very gloomy place to be after the game and described it as one of the lowest points of his career.

"It was one of the most disappointing situations I've ever experienced," he said. "As professional footballers we have to go back to work and the next time we pull on the shirt we have to make sure we're better

"It's difficult to put into words. It was a huge shock and disappointment, we deserved everything we got, everything that could go wrong went wrong.

"It's difficult to put your finger on exactly what's going wrong at the moment but we need to turn it around."